Taoiseach Enda Kenny was subjected to repeated questioning in the Dáil about apparent contradictions over his conversation with Minister for Children Katherine Zappone about Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe and the Tusla file.
During a debate and a heated question-and-answer session on Tuesday night he was accused by a number of TDs of publicly contradicting what Ms Zappone said to him in relation to his knowledge about the file and allegations of sexual crimes.
Pushed repeatedly by a number of TDs, Mr Kenny said Ms Zappone’s office had informed his office of her intention to meet the McCabes, rather than telling him directly as he had stated publicly, the day before she met them at the end of January.
He added that last Tuesday before the Cabinet meeting “she did inform me, before the Cabinet meeting began, she had met with the McCabes and they had discussed false sexual allegations against the sergeant”.
He said Ms Zappone had not made him aware of the existence of a Tusla file or any of its contents.
“And she did not make me aware of any of the content of the discussion she had with Sgt McCabe or his wife,’’ the Taoiseach added.
AAA-PBP TD Ruth Coppinger referred to comments by Ms Zappone that the Taoiseach had told her the Tusla file would be included in the terms of reference of the commission of investigation.
She asked why they were not included. Mr Kenny said the terms of reference were sufficiently flexible to allow for their inclusion and the chairman of the commission believed the allegations could be included.
‘Mea culpa’
Earlier Mr Kenny said he was “guilty” of giving out wrong information about his contacts with Ms Zappone. He said, “I might say ‘mea culpa’ here, because I did say, and I’m guilty here of not giving accurate information.”
“It actually was her office that consulted with my officials, who told me. She is very clear that she did not tell me that she intended to meet Sgt McCabe but she did tell her official to tell my office so I regret that,” Mr Kenny told Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
AAA-PBP TD Paul Murphy told Mr Kenny “the reason you made the mea culpa here isn’t that you remembered what happened but that you got caught out. You got caught out by the contradiction between what you said and what Minister Zappone said.”
In reference to the controversy over who had information about the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, Mr Kenny stressed that Ms Zappone “did not refer to any detail of the discussion with the McCabes, or the existence of a file in Tusla, or the information contained in that file.
“It is not true to say that I had any information about the existence of that prior to the Cabinet meeting.”
Mr Murphy quoted the Taoiseach from RTÉ's This Week programme on Sunday on his comments to Ms Zappone. "I said to her, 'Well if you do have a meeting, make sure you have a thorough account of it.'"
‘Completely inaccurate’
Mr Murphy said: “This is not some slightly inaccurate remembrance of your conversation with Katherine Zappone.
“It’s a completely inaccurate statement. You have said that that conversation did not take place. How could you remember it in such detail if it didn’t take place?”
Mr Murphy said: “The reason that it matters Taoiseach is that it means that on Tuesday at the Cabinet meeting you knew about Tusla and you didn’t brief the Cabinet. It means you consciously didn’t include it in the terms of the reference and it means you misled the public.”
Earlier, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the controversy had been going on for eight years, and under the Taoiseach’s watch a Garda commissioner had stood down, a minister for justice had resigned, the confidential recipient for whistleblowers had stepped aside and a secretary general was transferred.
Mr Kenny accused him of being an “absolute hypocrite” and hit out at his treatment of former senator Máiría Cahill and sexual abuse by members of the IRA.
Mr Kenny also confirmed to the Dáil that a tribunal of inquiry would be held into allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe and he hoped the terms of reference could be agreed within 48 hours.
